Under the Big Top
by JustWhelmed
Summary: Wally knew that the Homecoming theme was circus (which was kind of ridiculous; was he the only one who thought that circus probably wasn't the most appropriate Homecoming theme?), or "Under The Big Top" as it was titled, but he didn't think that they meant it literally.


Wally knew that the Homecoming theme was circus (which was kind of ridiculous; was he the only one who thought that circus probably wasn't the most appropriate Homecoming theme?), or "Under The Big Top" as it was titled, but he didn't think that they meant it literally.

Sure, the entrance to the gymnasium was draped with black curtains, hiding the ceiling and walls, though the gymnasium itself was too vast to do much with. Apart from flashy lights and crude hand drawn decorations on the bleachers, there wasn't much that was rather special. It still looked like a gymnasium and the music still sucked. Wally got there early, having finished dinner early with his date, a blonde girl that was head of the archery club named Artemis, but she had already left to mingle with a group of friends loitering to buy their tickets. Wally himself was waiting for his own friends – and wondering whether or not they would show. It wasn't as if he and Artemis were anything serious; honestly, he had asked last minute because neither of them had dates, and she had probably accepted because it meant that she got free dinner.

People were filtering into the gymnasium by the time the last of the décor was finished, décor that truly puzzled Wally.

In one corner of the gym were two ribbons hanging down from the ceiling's support beams. Well, they were more like curtains than anything, but they were narrow enough to be ribbons, thick and sturdy ribbons that draped onto the floor. In the parallel corner, there was a hoop hanging down from the same beam structure. Then, in the second gym that was smaller than the one the main event was being hosted in, which had its double doors open to filter into the main gym, were sets of trapezes and swings also hanging from the beams. Wally thought them to be something to add to the theme, though he was confused on why they would have something like that. The seniors would destroy them while trying to show off.

In the end, Wally ignored them in favour of glancing towards the entrance to find a familiar face, and once Kaldur's bewildered expression peered through with an unknown short haired African American girl on his arm, Wally darted at the double chance of both crashing a potential cause of a future heartbreak for his friend and looking less awkwardly alone standing by himself. Sadly, Kaldur's date was less than pleased to be interrupted, and she quickly scurried off with Kaldur all to herself, much unlike Artemis had done with Wally.

He followed them, anyway. That is, until he happened across M'gann and Conner standing on the other end of the gymnasium on the sidelines after the place had started to mostly fill in with people. Wally approached them with an easy grin. "Hey, babe!" he exclaimed when he caught M'gann's eyes. "You're looking gorgeous, beautiful." Wally wasn't really lying, though there was only so much that a sophomore could be as far as gorgeous went. She had donned a pretty blue dress on that darkened at the edges and shimmered when light glinted off of it, and was bound around the middle by a white buckle. Conner had on a white vest with a blue tie, probably to match with her outfit.

M'gann flushed. "Thank you, Wally," she responded politely, and Conner just grunted. However, when it was clear that Wally wasn't leaving, M'gann tried for small talk and, surprisingly, they ended up with a steady conversation where Wally halfheartedly attempted toning down the flirting, just a tad, because it was Homecoming and M'gann had a date.

He wasn't completely selfish, after all.

The dance had already begun. It seemed that everyone which would show had filtered in, and the ones in the front were dancing, while the more out casted people hung near the back, further from the speakers. That's when the crowd started to part.

Bewildered, Wally stopped himself mid-sentence to stare as a large circle at the back of the gymnasium near the bleachers was cleared, and he found himself already walking towards that space without another word to M'gann. She and Conner would probably follow in their own curiousity, anyway.

What he found confused him for only a split second.

There was a large hula hoop that a lean man in dreadlocks was twirling around, and as Wally watched, the man suddenly grasped the top with both hands and jumped into it, his feet going onto the bottom, and beginning to spin in it haphazardly. It moved like a crowd wave would, and when he seemed to, somehow and without hands, cause it to stand nearly erect again, he jumped so his body still tilted with the hula hoop but his legs were drawn up to his chest. Wally stared.

And then it hit him.

The theme was _circus. _Ha, no wonder the tickets were so damn expensive for something like Homecoming. He wondered briefly if the man was actually part of the circus, when he heard a shout behind him.

"Wally!" it was M'gann. "Look!"

The redhead turned, only to blink in shock at a woman he did not notice at all in a leotard halfway up the curtains that he had spotted earlier. They were twirled around her feet to hold her, and she was doing the splits between them. Slowly, she brought her legs together and let go with her hands, curling up and then rolling out so that she hung upside down to the crowd.

"Oo, and over there!" Wally glanced over at his excited friend as M'gann pointed towards the other corner of the gym, where the redhead was startled again to find another woman in a leotard, leopard printed, crawling over the hoop he had spotted earlier.

The three of them stood there for many minutes, simply staring at all the acts. Wally found himself more captivated by the man than anything, until he memorised his act and the woman in the ribbons caught his attention. How the hell did she manage to keep her _balance? _

After about ten minutes, the crowd began to clear a bit to go back to dancing, though the acts didn't stop for another five minutes. Wally wondered how long they would normally have to go in actual performances. The redhead would get exhausted after just a minute, though he figured that all of the attention was definitely a motivation.

When Wally looked around after the woman in the hoop hopped off and walked through a door at the back of the gymnasium, he found M'gann and Conner some ways away, clearly having decided to forget about Wally. The redhead didn't mind too much, as he was well aware that he was third-wheeling, and decided that he might as well look for his date. She wasn't too hard to find in her bright green dress, contrasting to the mostly dim colours that everyone else was wearing, and stark blonde hair that rolled down her back in curls. She seemed to be part of a dance circle, but displayed no interest in actually participating. Wally smoothly slid up beside her.

"How goes it?" he greeted casually, watching as a boy he briefly recognised from English class did some horrible imitation of break dancing in the middle of the circle.

Artemis raised an unamused eyebrow, still looking to the middle of the circle. "Not much. You?" she responded, and Wally was about to answer when someone shoved their way between them.

"Wally, my man!" exclaimed a loud voice, and Wally could hardly distinguish them in the harsh lighting. A friend of Roy's, probably. The moody geek was surprisingly popular, after all.

"Hey!" Wally dragged out enthusiastically, because in all the noise the boy probably wouldn't bother to ask Wally if he knew his name, and Wally could just pretend that he knew him.

The boy grinned, before turning to Artemis. Then, he snapped his head back to look at Wally. "Damn, Art, you're with this kid?"

Whose side exactly was the guy on? Wally stared as Artemis shrugged. She never was very excited about school dances, anyway. "Yeah, and?" she questioned, and the boy backed off, hands out in front of him and a nasty grin eating up his face. Wally decided that he didn't like him.

"Nothing, nothing," he insisted. Then, without another word, he darted between them roughly in order to plunge into the middle of the circle. Artemis shook her head, a weird expression on her face as she tugged on Wally's sleeve to lead him away.

Looking for something to say as they backed away from the rapidly growing mosh pit-like group near the speakers, Wally glanced towards the empty hoop. "So, did you see the performers?" he asked conversationally. Artemis rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, kind of hard to miss."

Wally snorted at her sarcasm, before shrugging. "Hey, you could have been in the bathroom or something." Artemis only rolled her eyes at his statement. "Who are they, anyway?"

"Some circus performers. Probably why the ticket prices were so high. Heard they were in town; originally from Ontario or something," Artemis answered, and Wally hummed thoughtfully.

"That's pretty cool, actually," he said. "Real circus performers."

Artemis nodded, before a thought occurred to her and she suddenly frowned. "Have you never been to a circus before?"

"No?" replied Wally. "I don't really keep track of when they're in town."

"Wow, what sort of childhood did you have?" she asked.

"One without circus acts."

Artemis seemed like she was about to respond, when her attention was diverted as her eyes caught a glimpse of something through the doors leading towards the smaller gymnasium. "Jesus, are those trapezes?" she wanted to know.

Wally guessed what she was commenting on. "Seems like it."

"Do you think they're going to have acrobats?" asked Artemis, eyes slightly widening at the thought.

Wally frowned as he peered over and looked closer at what was there. There were swings and trapezes, sure, but only about two. Beside the set was a variety of levelled bars, all set a little ways after one another. The highest one was slightly higher than the trapezes. "Apparently," he commented. "Probably not too extreme, though. After all, this is a Homecoming dance, not a legit stage."

Artemis nodded. "Acrobats are my favourite," she claimed, but offered no further explanation as she turned her attention back to the group she had just backed away from. According to her expression, she may have spotted something or someone of significance, because she immediately began to walk back. Wally moved to follow and pry, until something struck out to him from the corner of his vision. He looked behind him to see someone else in a leotard slinking around the walls of the gymnasium. A performer, but Wally hadn't seen them act yet. Him. Wally hadn't seen _him _act yet. Wally knew that mostly because the other man was not as short as the boy in the leotard, plus he had been wearing jeans, and the women clearly had certain different assets. Attention fixed, the redhead watched as the boy, probably a high schooler or even _younger, _walked towards the trapezes.

Was he-?

No, he was too _small. _

Still, the boy strode up to the equipment as if he was born to, and a few heads turned as he rubbed something into his hands and hopped to grasp the lowest of the multiple bars that had been set up beside the trapezes. Wally saw a glimpse of his face, one adorned by a mask that showed his eyes but not around them, and lips that were mouthing, "_I'm all about that bass, about that bass, no trouble," _with the DJ.

Slowly, he began to swing.

Yup, he was an acrobat. Wally frowned, wondering if the circus had ever possibly gotten CPS called on them.

There was a guard pushing back any of the people nearby, causing note for more given attention, and soon everyone nearby had paused to look at the lithe little acrobat. Wally pushed forward until he was at the edge of the circle, peering up at the kid. Seriously, was he the only person in the room that thought the kid had way too much talent if he was about to start doing tricks on those? Honestly, it made Wally feel pretty lame.

"And thus, the acrobats," commented a voice, and Wally turned to greet Artemis once more. Her eyebrows shot up. "Jesus, he's short," she said.

"He's _young," _Wally corrected, and Artemis squinted to confirm his suspicions. She turned to him.

"I swear, if he starts flipping and twirling in the air, I'm going to start betting on young circus freaks over young gymnasts," she remarked, and Wally agreed, until there was a startled gasp from behind him and he turned his head to look back at the show.

The acrobat was already spinning rather quickly on the second to lowest bar, though when he had switched bars was lost on Wally. Maybe that was the cause for the gasp. Still, as Wally watched, he let go of the bar and flipped in mid-air, legs tucked, before his hands immediately connected with the higher bar. Then, one swing around it later, he let go and flew towards the next one and swung twice on that before giving a handstand on top of the bar itself. The room erupted into random groups of clapping. Slowly, the boy let gravity pull him back around the bar, body still straight, and then began spinning faster again until he suddenly let go, flipped once more, and landed on his feet on the highest bar. He stood up straight, arms out, as if he were collecting the applause that erupted enthusiastically, before flipping back off onto the second tallest bar, spinning again and again, and letting go so that his hands connected to the trapeze. The momentum carried him clear to the other trapeze dangling from the beams, slightly lower than the one he was on, and the boy stayed suspended between the two for a still moment, legs on the lower trapeze and hands on the higher, before he hooked his knees on the lower trapeze and _let go. _

Wally's heart jumped into his throat as the boy somehow managed to not slip off, his arms dangling towards the floor and torso stick straight. Momentum carried him back to the other, still swinging, higher trapeze, and he grasped it with his arms again, lifting his knees and swinging back to the bars. He pushed off of the highest bar, still holding onto the trapeze, and swung faster. Nearly to the other trapeze, he let go, grasping the lower trapeze mid-fall.

Wally's mouth was slightly open, watching with wide eyes at the kid, his own heart thumping in fear for the stranger and adrenaline at the show. Hell, if Wally was that pumped up and nervous, how was the kid feeling? The boy let on hand go in order to grasp the other trapeze, so that he was hanging between the two of them, before letting go of the lower trapeze again and lunging his lower body forward as if it were his legs on a swing set so that he lurched towards the bars again. Then, he let go completely in order to swing back onto the highest bar, but his body continued his forward as his hands stayed and he used the momentum to let go at the last moment and back flip, landing with his back facing Wally.

He would definitely beat most gymnasts, for sure. How…?

The boy slowly turned, arms still raised, to face the entire circle, before he lowered his arms and bowed. Then, without another motion, he clear ran off the scene, and it seemed that Wally was the only one remaining rooted to his spot, watching him duck through the same door that the woman in the ribbons had earlier.

"Dear God," Artemis muttered under her breath, along with an essay of curse words. Wally shakily turned towards her.

"Is that how a circus is like?" he asked.

Artemis blinked. "Sort of. But I've never been so close, and he's so little."

It was a few minutes before the crowd properly cleared, though a guard remained stationed by the equipment, likely to prevent anyone from deciding it was a jungle gym. Wally managed to make his focus appear as if it were the new dance group that had formed, but his mind was clear on the other side of a metaphorical world, and it didn't help matters any when he saw the boy peer back out of the door and laugh at something Wally couldn't spot.

The redhead stilled and stared as a head materialised above the boy's, also peering out, the woman from the hoop, and she said something that made the boy laugh again. He darted out and raced to the guard standing underneath the ribbons and began seemingly joking around, the woman hot on his trail.

Wally felt half content and half jealous at the way the three of them interacted with such carefree behaviour, as if they had nothing in the world to worry about. Between the two adults, though the woman looked as if she could easily be a senior herself, the boy was playfully jostled around, and a happy grin never left his face.

Wally's smile was completely washed off and, heart heavy, he ran a palm across his face and walked towards the hallway, where he knew he had spotted refreshments somewhere.

The redhead had lifted a cup of water to his lips when he was bumped into, and he ignored the drops of water going down his shirt in favour of staring at his assaulter. The culprit was a red-faced, sweaty-banged junior Wally recognised from his track team, leaning heavily against the double table that the refreshments were on. "Damn," he cursed mildly. "It's hot in there."

Wally rose his eyebrows, and the boy, David as Wally remembered, pointed tiredly back into the near-to-mosh-pit-standards crowd that was forming right beside the speakers. "I've been dancing this entire time."

Wally smiled conversationally. "Looks like someone has," he commented, and David looked at him closely, as if examining whether or not Wally looked tired enough. When he found no obvious signs of exhaustion, he frowned.

"Did you get dumped or something?" he asked bluntly, and Wally laughed because if he really had been dumped, that blunt of a question would be a terrible blow.

"No," he said. "I'm not dating to begin with."

"Oh," David said, head slightly bobbing in acknowledgement, before he grabbed a cup of punch and practically chugged it down. Then he tossed the cup into the trash can. "I guess I'll be going back in there, then. Try and have some fun," he advised, patting Wally on the shoulder as he dashed off again.

Right, Wally thought bitterly. He paused in surprise with himself. When had he gotten so moody? Really, weren't the performers supposed to improve his mood, not cause it to plummet into the depths of hell? He held his half empty cup of water to his lips in both contemplation and in an attempt to not look like he did get dumped by standing alone and staring into space. He was so into his own world, though, that he didn't even notice when someone else joined him at the long table, staring down at its contents. Water, punch – not anything special. But the table that had linked up with the one Wally was against was absolutely covered in cake and brownies and cookies, and Wally himself briefly wondered why his appetite seemed so low that evening. The other person was on the other end of the table, but when Wally's water ran out and he reached for more just for something to do, they also leaned forward to grab a brownie, and their hand caught his eye.

Eyes darting without Wally's permission, he took in the sight of the only boy that wasn't wearing a vest. In fact, Wally wasn't certain whether or not leotards even counted as shirts.

Arm suspended while reaching for the water, Wally stared as the boy took a generous bite out of the brownie and began scooting towards the water and punch. When he got practically crashed into by some overly excited teenager, though, he ducked underneath the table and stood on the side that had about a foot of space between the food and the wall. There he continued on his way, standing right in front of Wally and staring down at the punch almost uncertainly.

Only one thing could leave Wally's mouth. "It's punch." Of course, he had to pretty much shout it, and then didn't know whether it was a good thing or not when the boy glanced up in surprise and a smirk spread flashed onto his face.

"I figured," he answered, and Wally was surprised to hear the high pitched voice, even if he already knew that the boy was rather young. Wally couldn't think of anything to respond with, and thankfully, he didn't need to. The boy gestured to the punch. "Do you think it's spiked?"

The redhead paused. The boy was old enough to be comfortable like that around alcohol? "Uh, maybe," he yelled back unhelpfully. "I mean, it's possible, so you might not want to risk it and end up falling off the bars because you accidentally got intoxicated."

The boy grinned. "You're probably right," he agreed. "It's not fun falling from bars." He reached for the water instead.

Wally knew that it wasn't a very appropriate question to ask for most people, but he couldn't help it. He was curious. "How old are you?" Sadly, right after he asked, Wally realised that he probably should have asked for the boy's name first. Oh well. What was done was done.

"Fourteen," the boy responded, unfazed. "You?"

Wally choked on his water, cheeks beginning to burn at his own reaction. "Fourteen?" he exclaimed.

The boy stared at him, eyebrows raised, the slightest of smirks still on his lips. "Yup," he said with a nod. "Do you think I'd be allowed to do all that if I was younger?"

"But you look—"Wally began, before thankfully, and for once, cutting himself off. His blush increased. "I, uh, I just turned sixteen."

There was no way that kid was fourteen. Okay, so maybe he didn't look as young as Wally had originally thought. His baby fat was gone, and he had a rather attractive face with surprisingly angular features and good definition of muscle. But he was so lean and thin and short that, Wally having known no acrobats, he found it hard to believe. Everyone Wally knew tried to get themselves bulkier, not stay light.

"Nice to meet you," the boy said with a grin that pretty much lit up his entire face. How could someone be so _happy? _"I'm Dick, by the way."

Wally choked again, but that time, Dick cackled with. "Dick?" he asked uncertainly, and Dick nodded. "I'm going to feel way too mean calling you Dick."

Dick rolled his eyes. "It's just an old nickname. I don't like being called by my full name."

"What kind of name could Dick _possibly _be short for?" Wally wanted to know.

"Richard."

Wally stared. "Dick is short for Richard? How—"

Dick cackled again. "Rick is short for Richard, and Dick rhymes with Rick. In other words, history is weird."

"Woow," Wally said, shaking his head. Suddenly, the boy finished his water and ducked underneath the table again to appear beside Wally. The redhead stared at the other, tracing the outlines of Dick's mask with his eyes and taking in the swirls of red designs on the white background.

Dick stared at him expectantly, and Wally realised with a jolt that he hadn't introduced himself in turn. "Oh, I'm Wally," he said awkwardly.

"Wall-E?" Dick asked, before giving a remarkably accurate robotic Eve from Wall-E imitation of the name.

Wally flushed. "It's short for Wallace!" he claimed. Dick cackled.

"If you end up one day as a garbage man, I am going to laugh so freaking hard," said Dick without mercy.

Wally huffed. "Hey, I'm going to go somewhere, man. I'm going to be someone big. Or a forensic scientist. I'll cure cancer."

"But forensic scientists don't look for cures," Dick tried pointing out.

"I'll be a forensic scientist _or _cure cancer," amended Wally. "I'll save America from the evil of Ebola."

Dick only shook his head, grinning. Then he shrugged. "I don't get it," he began.

"Get what?" Wally asked.

"I don't get why everyone wants to be doctors and scientists and all that. It sounds so… boring," said Dick. "Uneventful. Plain. Spending your life in a lab or in a surgery room."

"But you can save lives," Wally protested. "You can't save anyone's life in the circus. You can't earn a fortune in the circus."

Dick's grin slowly waned. "Yeah, but you can live," and just like that, it was plastered once more upon his face. "I can feel like I'm _flying_ almost every night, and I have a family like no other. A big family where I'm never alone. There are too many people in this world who are alone."

Wally stood there awkwardly, shifting his weight from foot to foot, considering what Dick said. He really couldn't imagine it. In all honesty, imagining living with a big circus family only felt to Wally as if he went and camped out at school. Except that he couldn't have his own room because it was a travelling circus and they moved around so much. It would seriously suck, in Wally's opinion. He was used to having his own room and his own home and his own stuff that no one could touch. Whenever he had to visit somewhere, he could never decide what to take and what to leave there. And what about when he and his father got into an argument? Wally cringed. If they lived in the circus, wouldn't _everyone _hear it?

Dick wasn't paying attention to him, though. As Wally observed, he was staring at the man still standing beside the bars, and before Wally could decide what they were doing, Dick turned to him. "Will you still be around for a while longer?"

Wally blinked, before glancing at the exit doors of the gymnasium. Honestly, Wally did want to leave… but thinking about talking to Dick again, well, it was the most interesting part of his night. If Wally left, he wouldn't be allowed back in. "Yeah," he answered. "Why?"

"I need to go do a little more tricks," Dick said happily. "But it won't be as long. I'll be right back." Then, before Wally could say another word, he dashed off, weaving his way through the crowd. By the time he got beside the trapezes, Wally could spot a boy and a girl, presumably on a date, approach him. It wasn't long before they walked off, though, and Wally found himself throwing his water cup away and walking to where he knew a circle was about to form again.

The woman from the ribbons was already there. She greeted Dick with a smile and a nod, and then swung up the bars, though far less extravagantly than Dick, to jump onto the trapeze. Dick followed her, preforming his own flips that she had not, probably because she seemed intent on only reaching the trapeze, and he stayed on the highest bar as the woman jumped onto the lowest trapeze.

Then, Dick flung himself onto the trapeze swinging towards him, people still clapping from the woman's jumps, as the woman hung by her knees from the lowest trapeze. She caught his legs, and Dick let go, allowing her to freely swing him by his ankles back and then forth so that his hands met the higher trapeze again. When his hands connected, the woman slid her knees from the trapeze, and Wally's heart stopped as he considered how in the world Dick would be able to handle her weight on his legs. He didn't have to, though. Dick stayed suspended there as the woman only held onto him in order to pull herself from the trapeze, and then she let go and caught the highest bar with her hands. She did no flips, unlike Dick, though.

The rest of the act passed in a blur, and before Wally knew it, Dick was standing on the mat sweating profusely and bowing with the woman who had been his partner. As the clapping continued, Dick straightened up and glanced towards the water stand, a frown immediately making its way onto his face. That is, though, until Wally walked into his line of vision, and his face brightened once more. Dick ran back over to the sophomore.

"So, did you like?" Dick asked when they were in shouting range. Wally nodded.

"Are you kidding me? How couldn't I? Dude, where did you even learn how to do that?" he asked. Dick grinned.

"Practice," said Dick. "That, and my entire family is filled with acrobats. They're not here because only three people were allowed to volunteer for this job, and I really wanted to be one of them."

Wally nodded. "So you guys normally do group acrobatics or something?"

"Yup," Dick confirmed. "Since I'm the only acrobat here – the other girl was Natasha, she's trained briefly in being an acrobat so she was the most skilled here – I had to tone down a lot of the acts." The black haired boy cackled. "Well, I should have. I wanted to make it somewhat challenging, so thus, the many flips."

Wally decided that he liked the boy. He smiled back, and then glanced towards the groups of dancing teenagers, the groups that Wally and Dick were rather close to. He tugged on Dick's arm and began to lead him towards the side lines. "That's really freaking cool," he said. "I would never be able to do anything like that. I can run like hell, though."

"Run?" Dick asked. He looked genuinely curious. "Is running a talent?"

Before Wally could elaborate, though, a certain blonde shock of hair burst in their conversation. Artemis appeared beside Wally, arm briefly draped around his shoulders as she smiled brightly at Dick. "Are you the acrobat?" she asked.

"Sure am," Dick confirmed, giving a humouring bow.

And then, the conversation spiralled from there.

Zatanna, one of Artemis' friends that Wally only hardly knew, M'gann, and Conner soon joined the trio. Conner didn't do much of anything, but all three of the girls began to dance, and Wally ended up contributing himself with the most theatrical of displays. Dick was laughing at Wally and the two of them ended up in a weird sort of dance contest to see who could do the most remarkably bad dancing, and Wally won it with pride. When Zatanna engaged Dick in who could do the _best _dancing, however, Dick won the second he went into the splits.

All in all, it ended up being a lot more fun than Wally originally gave it credit for.

Teenagers were beginning to disperse from the dance, and Wally glanced at his cell phone to spot the glaring number of 10:42 staring back at him. The dance was supposed to end at 11:00, and he found himself overwhelmed with a strange sense of disappointment. Dick looked to be the same when he peered over Wally's shoulder and saw the time for himself.

"Dick!" called a voice over the blaring music, about a foot away from the two, and the duo glanced to find the woman in the hoop at the beginning of the dance sporting a leopard leotard approach them. She gave a kind smile and curious glance at Wally, before turning to Dick and gesturing towards the room that all the acts had continued to disappear into throughout the night. Dick gave a vicious almost-pout, and she sent him an almost pitying glance before shouting something that Wally couldn't hear and running towards the guard near the ribbons. Dick turned to Wally with an apologetic expression.

"I have to go," said the boy, and Wally surprised himself with the feeling of raw disapproval swimming in his gut. He glanced at the phone still in his hands.

"I know," Wally said with a sigh. "I do too, soon. But uh, can I have your phone number?" He waved his phone as an example, before quickly backtracking as an expression of surprise flitted across the younger's face. "I mean, just to keep in touch. You travel a lot, right? You seem like a cool guy, and I don't want to never see you again or something—"

"No, it's fine," Dick said. "But I don't actually have a phone."

Wally stared at him. "You don't?" Dick shook his head. "Then what do you have?"

"Nothing, really," Dick said awkwardly, reaching to scratch the back of his neck. "At least, in terms of technology. My mother has a phone and a guy in my tent has a laptop, but that's about it. We're not too… well off."

A wave of pity hit Wally full force. "Oh. Then, uh…" he stopped to think, before shoving his hands in his pockets. It took a second, but he finally managed to come up with a crumpled piece of paper that had a note written on it and half broken pencil. Quickly, Wally scribbled out the note and scrawled on his own phone number, handing the note back to Dick. Dick accepted it uncertainly. "Then if you ever come across a phone or something, call or text me with that." Wally awkwardly shifted from foot to foot. He seriously wanted to see Dick again. Maybe, one day, they could hang out or something, and Wally would be able to see what Dick looked like under the mask, or with pants on. A suspicion snuck into Wally's mind about how good Dick would be at parkour, too, and Wally was determined to one day see for himself.

"I—yeah," Dick agreed, looking at the series of numbers for a second before stuffing the note back into his pocket. The expression on his face was a grin, like it usually was, but it seemed breathless, and Wally wasn't entirely sure if it was from the acts and all the dancing or what. "I'll see when I can."

Dick stayed there for a second longer, seemingly taking in the sight of his new official friend and Wally doing the same, before spinning on his heels and racing towards the door.

Wally thought that things were bound to get interesting.

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**For anyone who finds this actually happening to be unbelievable, let me inform you that last night I went to Homecoming and this is almost exactly what happened. The setting was the same, the decorations the same, it was called Under the Big Top - the only difference is that there were no acrobats. Just the ribbon woman, the hoop woman, and that hula hoop man with the dreadlocks.**

**It made me so jealous because I've wanted to be in a circus for such a long time. Watching them caused me physical pain.**

**Anyway, this may stay a one-shot, or it may not. It depends on what I'm feeling like doing. I still have another story in progress, after all, and that has to remain my main priority. It was just that after last night, the plot bunny killed me. And I really should be doing my homework because it's already Sunday evening and I have not started. **

**Read and review, and I hope you enjoyed!**


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